Out in the Cold
by Sarga
Summary: Kagome is alone in the US for the second Thanksgiving in a row. A homeless man shows Kagome what it means to be thankful. Written for LJ's inufanfictionYA community prompt "Thanksgiving". Mentions prostitution, drug use.


_**Out in the Cold**  
By Sarga_

_updated December 20, 2009  
_

_Warnings: This mentions prostitution and has some swearing.  
_

_Summary: Kagome is alone in the US for the second Thanksgiving in a row. A homeless man shows Kagome what it means to be thankful._

_Disclaimer: I do not own Inuyasha, nor do I make any money off of this fic._

* * *

It was the day before Thanksgiving, Kagome's second year of living in the United States – alone – and she still didn't understand the meaning behind the holiday. Not that it mattered much, there were plenty of sales afterword to keep her from having to buy anything else for the rest of the year...

Still, it was apparently a big thing to all of her co-workers at the translator's office. Most of her co-workers were natives, either born in the US or having moved here at a young age, and many had parents who spoke other languages. Molly, a self-appointed 'friend' who had grown on Kagome, had almost forced her to join her Polish mother, French/Italian Father and gaggle of siblings for her 'celebration' but she had managed to weasel her way out of it by claiming to have a phone-date with her boyfriend who still lived in Japan... who – unbeknownst to Molly – was completely imaginary.

Kagome sighed as she sat down at her small kitchen table with a small bowl of what the locals called ramen. The cheap, easily acquired snack-food was the only thing she let herself buy to remind her of home. Oh, sure, she had purchased many of the trappings that one would find in a traditional Japanese house, but a home... _her_ home... _that_ was lost forever. Her home had been in the arms of a half-demon long since lost to the ravages of time which was gone the way of Atlantis – lost forever, limited to the mere imaginings of a raving lunatic.

Looking out the window at the snow that was falling in thick feather flakes, Kagome bundled up to go out for a walk to clear her head.

It would be a long and lonely couple of days...

- - - - - - - - - -

Kagome stood at the supermarket checkout wondering why in the world she had convinced herself to purchase the small turkey and handful of fixings for a 'traditional' American meal. Most of the stuff was in ready-made form (she had never been one to cook from scratch, Inuyasha could attest to that) but it was a start. After all, she had moved to America to begin fresh, and what better way than to dive into one of the uniquely American traditions?

Kagome shuffled down the line-up on autopilot, paid the cashier without a word. The poor overworked girl looked like she was coming apart around the edges. Her hair was way too fuzzy for it to have been on purpose, and her grumbled 'Happy Thanksgiving' sounded completely forced... kind of like how Kagome felt about the whole thing.

Kagome had just about made it to her apartment building when she was knocked almost completely off her feet by the leaden weight of a random body collapsing into her. With quick reflexes she had forgotten she possessed, she managed to brace the poor man before he toppled both of them to the ground.

Sliding the man awkwardly to the ground, Kagome's grocery bags dropped and items scattered around her feet. Kicking the items to the side so that pedestrians (what few there were) wouldn't trip, Kagome crouched in front of the man who was folded like a neglected marionette, arms and legs splayed awkwardly.

Frowning, she reached her hand to his cheek – the only exposed skin she could see – and patted it semi-roughly, not hard enough to leave a mark but hopefully hard enough to rouse the poor young man.

His face was freezing. And gaunt.

Kagome's brow furrowed deeply as her frown increased. Grasping him by the shoulder she shook a little more roughly and was met with a moan. His clothes looked threadbare, and he was a little ripe from this close, but his breath didn't smell like alcohol... and he iwas/i smaller than a lot of the demons she had taken down in her youth...

Decision made, Kagome scooped up the few items that had come out of their bags and squat back down in front of the young man. Bracing her feet in a wide stance, she manoeuvred herself so that he was slung over her shoulder like a sack of potatoes – heavy potatoes. How had Kouga made it look so easy?

Making her way to the apartment building, thankful for the ground-level access and elevator – the company-supplied apartment was suddenly looking much more attractive than it had when she first moved in – Kagome managed to survive without spilling the contents of her bags or her shoulder.

Shuffling to her door, Kagome was sweating in her thick winter clothing. The dead weight on her shoulder wasn't getting any lighter and her key was in the pocket currently underneath her 'guest'. Wincing as she eased him awkwardly against the wall, she watched as he slid further and further sideways, his angle coming to a rest just short of hitting the floor. He looked like a drunk who had passed out leaning on a friend who had long since moved...

Kagome opened her apartment door and shoved her groceries in and out of the way. Grasping him under the armpits, Kagome dragged his body inward and kicked the door shut with a slam. Hoping he wouldn't have carpet burns – she was almost out of muscle by now – she dragged him to her couch and managed to get him in a semi-seated state.

Heading back to the door, Kagome locked it behind her and got rid of her sweltering jacket. Putting the groceries in the kitchen, Kagome headed back to her 'guest'.

His lips were blue.

Eyes widening, Kagome realized this was pretty serious. Healer mode kicking into overdrive. Kagome rushed to the kitchen and turned on the kettle before heading to her linen closet for blankets. Throwing them at the foot of the couch, Kagome began to strip the cold, worn garments from his body only to find that his thin, high-collared jacket had covered only a single threadbare t-shirt. In this weather, it was a recipe for disaster.

Over-warm from her earlier exertion, Kagome knew that her body-heat would be the quickest way to offset the cold. Straddling his jeans-clad legs and wrapping her arms around his chest, Kagome ran her hands under his shirt and across his frigid back. Pulling the blanket of them so that her body heat would stay trapped next to him, she frowned as she felt is body start to shiver... he had been so cold his body had already given up. What would have happened if she hadn't taken him in?

Kagome disregarded the thought and continued to shift so that her body was warming him as completely as she could manage. Placing her mouth on his, she breathed warm air into his lungs, unable to help but blush at the intimacy of her position – wrapped around him and lip-locked – even if it was to save his life.

It took a good fifteen minutes, but he had finally stopped shivering and his lips were no longer blue. Her face was cold from placing her own cheeks next to his freezing ones between breaths, but she could tell he was getting warmer. His heartbeat was steady and his breathing less shallow.

Finally out of the danger zone, Kagome started crying. When she was sure he would survive on his own, she eased herself off of him and dialled an emergency number via the kitchen phone. Another thirteen anxious minutes, and they were there to take her 'guest' in for treatment.

The entire time, he had remained unconscious.

The paramedics took over and Kagome breathed a sigh of relief. Riding in the front of the ambulance – they had assumed that he was her boyfriend and she hadn't corrected them – Kagome followed the stranger to the hospital and the flurry of paper-work that had her throwing up her hands in frustration with a cry of "I'll pay cash!". She didn't even know his name, there was no way the insurance company would pay for him...

A nurse came to her with more questions and Kagome was still lost. They knew she didn't know much but her next question threw her for a loop.

"How long has your friend been a user?"

Kagome was suddenly wondering if this was really such a good idea after all.

"I'm not sure," she whispered, slightly fearful. Had she taken a junkie off the streets and into her home? What if he hadn't been suffering from hypothermia, and was actually passed out from whatever drug he had taken? What if he had come to and attacked her? What if...

"Well, judging by how healed the track-marks on his arms were, we're going to assume he was off the drugs for at least a couple of months." The nurse sighed, lowering her voice and reaching to lightly touch Kagome's hand. "Sweetie, if you picked up this boy off the street, you've done enough. It's best not to get too involved when they're this far in."

Kagome looked sharply at the woman who was supposed to care for her new 'friend'.

"Unless you have any more questions, I'd suggest you get back to my friend, please. I'll wait here until I can see him." Kagome's stance was firm and she watched the nurse bite back a retort before turning away.

Kagome spent the first hours of Thanksgiving day waiting for a man with no name.

- - - - - - - - - -

"Ms. Higurashi?"

Kagome, having fallen into a fitful sleep while sitting upright in the family waiting area, jolted awake with a wince at the kink in her neck.

"Yes?"

"Isaac is awake and asked to speak to you."

Isaac.

His name was Isaac.

Kagome nodded and followed the doctor to a small recovery room where three other patients rested in the early morning dark.

Sitting up in the furthest bed from the wall was the man she had 'rescued' earlier.

Kagome felt like she was hit by a truck as her grey eyes met his violet.

Isaac could have been Inuyasha's twin.

Thick blonde dreadlocks, formerly covered by a heavy winter cap, cascaded down his back and shoulders. His penetrating violet gaze was hard on hers and he waved the doctor away with an almost angry motion.

"Sit down."

What should have been a request sounded distinctly like an order, one Kagome was hard-pressed not to obey. She perched on the edge of the chair closest to his side.

"Did we sleep together?"

Kagome was taken aback. Was he daft!

"What are you...?"

"They said I might forget some stuff and I was really desperate for money so I thought..." Isaac didn't know how to put into words the delightful taste on his lips when he had awoken. A flavour distinctly feminine and vaguely like when he had been with a woman, only sweeter than he recalled.

"Whoa! You wanna know if I paid money to sleep with you? Absolutely not, no way, no how. I did what I had to to keep you warm, that was it!"

Kagome was met with a blank stare.

"Uh...I don't speak Chinese..." Isaac averted his eyes in embarrassment.

Chinese? ...Then she realized... she had been so nervous she had started speaking in her native tongue.

"Japanese... And no, I did not pay you for... that..." Kagome blushed and looked at the same random point on the wall that he had chosen. My, what an interesting shade of cream...

"Okay," his whisper sounded almost relieved.

Kagome looked back at Isaac curiously. He had leaned back against the pillow and he looked almost... peaceful. Nothing like a druggie, or whatever it was the nurse had claimed.

"Uh... you can go now..." Isaac's voice was somewhat sarcastic and Kagome was getting fed up with being treated like a child.

"Listen here, buster! I am not about to walk out of this hospital after having nearly lost my mind with worry just so you can get dumped back out on the street. As soon as you're released, you're coming home with me and I'm cooking you a Thanksgiving turkey, which you're going to eat...What?" Kagome stopped abruptly, her anger turning to embarrassment at the sight of Isaac's laughter.

"Fine, fine. I'll come. They said I'm fine and that I could stay the night if I needed a warm bed, but I can leave now, if that's what you want..." Isaac chuckled as he sat up and reached inside the drawer for his clothing. "I'll need a couple of minutes to get dressed, but I'll be right out."

Kagome nodded, her face as red as a Christmas tree ornament as she waited for her new guest to join her in a cab ride home.

- - - - - - - - - -

Kagome was having a hell of a time making dinner. The stove-top dressing was way too dry and smelled like it was burning, the turkey that she was supposed to stuff was already full (at least she didn't have to stick her hands in there) and to top it all off she had knocked the glass of pumpkin pie filling onto the floor, upon which it has shattered, sending a splattering mess of glass and orange goo to the far reaches of the kitchen. Kagome groaned as she realized she would have to pull out the refrigerator.

"Uh... Need any help?"

Kagome whirled around to bite out a resounding 'no, you're a guest here' but was abruptly dissuaded by the sight of Isaac's eerily familiar visage. Now that he was showered (his blonde dreads still intact but much cleaner), he resembled Inuyasha so much that it hurt. With eyes as dark as Inuyasha's on his human night and hair that tumbled haphazardly down his back, his wary expression topped of the deception and Kagome felt her eyes water dangerously with the unexpected memory.

Standing slowly to let herself catch a shaky breath, Kagome finished wiping the last of the glass and goop from the floor in front of the sink.

"Thanks, but I think I'll be..." Kagome hissed as she felt a shard of glass slice through her sock and into her foot. With an unwomanly swear, she grabbed her foot and yanked the shard out, red florets of blood adorning her once pristine sock.

Isaac's sympathetic intake of breath drew close to her ear as Kagome hopped on one foot, trying not to lose her balance and he helped her shuffle to the couch in the nearby living room.

"Stay put," Isaac's authority was heartbreakingly familiar and Kagome had to physically remind herself that she was, indeed half a world and a handful of centuries away from the man he reminded her of. Laying her head back on the couch as she took solace in the dull throb of her foot (she should feel this pain, just like Inuyasha must have when they were separated) Kagome let her tears leak out of her closed eyes.

It was almost a half an hour later when she felt his presence return to her side and she opened her now-dry eyes.

"I hope you don't mind... I took care of dinner..." Isaac looked uncomfortable as he scratched behind his ear and looked slightly past his 'host'.

Kagome let her mouth drop open in astonishment

"You didn't... I mean, I was supposed to..."

"Keh, don't worry about it. I gotta do something to pay you back for saving my life."

Kagome's heart seized up in her chest. She could almost see a fang hanging over his lip as he quirked a reluctant half-smile her way and it was wrenching her apart. She had to stop thinking about him, Inuyasha was long gone!

"So, do you live nearby?" Kagome spat out the first thing that came to mind and immediately cringed at what popped out. Of course he didn't – he was homeless...

"I used to," Isaac responded with a weary shrug. "The roomies wanted more than just rent money though so I had to split."

"They wanted you to be a prostitute for them?" The way he had mentioned it last night, she was almost convinced of it.

"Eh? Oh! No... not that... I lived with my dealer. When I got off the junk he tried to force me back on the shit and... well..." Isaac shrugged again. "Wasn't worth it..."

"What made you... why'd you quit?" Kagome asked softly, wondering what kind of person would be weak enough to get hooked but strong enough to pull himself out of such a destructive habit.

Isaac snorted in derision. "The same reason I started... Family."

Kagome sighed, thinking of all the times she could have let the jewel become an escape for her. If she had the knowledge she had now, would she have made a different wish? One that would have been less sacrificing? Would she now be able to give up all that she loved, knowing what it truly cost, for the sake of everything else? Or would she dive into the depths of hell if it meant another year with her love? Another week? A day? A minute?

Oh, yes. Kagome could understand why Isaac had started that dangerous spiral. It was the same one she wished she could take every time thoughts of silver and gold skirted her consciousness.

Kagome nodded and extended her hand in an invitation for him to sit on her couch.

"So... uh... what made you bring me home, anyway? I didn't offer to knock boots, so did I beg or something?" Isaac frowned as he tried to recall the evening prior.

"You fell into my arms." Kagome gave a half-smile at his confused, and slightly blushing face.

"Huh?"

"I was walking here from the store and you fell, quite literally, into my arms. I was close to home so I slung you over my shoulder and dragged you up. I was just going to offer you a place to rest for the night, but then I realized you were too cold... so I called an ambulance." Kagome averted her eyes, not wanting to divulge the intimacy only she had been conscious for. Judging by the soft smile and light tinge to his own cheeks, he filled in the blanks.

"By the way... you really need new clothes." Kagome snorted. "They're too thin for this weather and, well..."

"They're dirty?" Isaac quirked an eyebrow and supplied the thought Kagome had been trying to back herself away from the insult gracefully.

"I've got some stuff my momma packed by mistake. My brother didn't miss them so I haven't sent them back." Kagome stood and went into her room, looking for the clothes, finding them after only a brief search and turned to leave, only to be startled by the sight of Isaac in the doorway.

"Oh! Here," Kagome thrust the clothing toward Isaac who was still blocking her exit, an odd look in his eye.

"Thanks," he breathed, taking the clothing and laying them on the dresser next to the door. In a swift motion he pulled off the shirt and dropped it to the floor, violet and grey locked in a heated moment as Kagome's heart raced a mile a minute.

"What are you...?" Kagome breathed as he closed the gap between them, his lips – so soft and warm and ifamiliar/i – brushing lightly on her own as the pad of his thumb brushed along the curve of her jaw.

"I've seen the way you've been looking at me," Isaac murmered into her lips. "And I said I'd pay you back." Pulling away slightly, he looked into her eyes, his dark orbs pleading with her. "Please, it's all I have to give."

Kagome stayed still and closed her eyes, letting him kiss and nip at her lovingly. Her heart was heavy and even though the feel of him was so right, her heart would let her betray her one true love.

"No, Inuyasha. Not like this," Kagome begged in a whisper. Eyes still closed, she felt his body pull away from her and the light sound of his sock-clad feet padding along carpet. Voice rough edged, he made his own reply.

"I'll be out in a minute. I just gotta change."

Kagome cracked her eyes open too late to see him leave her room. She had spoken Inuyasha's name, not Isaac's, not that it mattered to him. Still, for all the hurt that it had caused her to be compared to Kikyo... she should have known better!

Kagome rubbed the moisture from her eyes and hobbled back to the kitchen after changing into clean socks. As she drew nearer, she was inundated with heavenly smells at varying degrees of readiness. Wondering how he could have gotten things prepared in just thirty minutes, she began puttering around to clean up some of the mess left in both their wakes.

"So, Kagome, you got any family around here?" Isaac was back, this time dressed in a slightly loose-fitting outfit that had been just barely too small for Souta when her mother had inadvertently packed it.

"Not here, but back home."

"Japan, right?"

Both avoiding touchy subjects, the pair got to know each other as they finished preparing a barely-edible feast.

- - - - - - - - - -

Isaac had grown up fairly well off in a middle-class family in the suburbs. His father, a very hard worker, held a decent blue-collar job right up until the day he was hit by a drunk driver when Isaac was fourteen. Unwilling to face the pain, he had escaped into a life of all-night parties and daylight down-time, much to his mother's dismay. His mother, having worked part-time at the local library before her husband's death, had quit her job once the life insurance policy had paid out in order to focus more on her children, only to fall into binge drinking herself at the sight of her own son wasting away.

Three years of it and Isaac was finally kicked out by a mother who had escaped her own destructive grief. Left to his own devices, he fell in with the wrong crowd and spent four years at dead-end jobs that paid just enough to let him live the lifestyle that he wanted.

Then, a year before Kagome Higurashi had found him near death on the street, his mother had died.

It had taken social services nearly six months to find Isaac and let him know.

By that time his brother was already 'in the system' and Isaac stumbled around, trying to get his bearings. Two months after, in late August when the weather was still pleasant, he had packed up the only stuff he owned – not much after he had pawned most of it away for drug money – and hit the streets, knowing it was infinitely better to be clean and homeless than wrecked and under a roof. If he wanted to see his brother again – possibly even provide a home for him – Isaac would have to get a job and stay clean.

Except no one wanted to hire a junky who had been fired so many times.

It was ironic, really. The same connections that got him his supply were the same connections who had provided his previous jobs. Now that he was clean and intending to stay that way, no one would look twice at him. Employers desperate enough to take a drug-dealer's 'clients' didn't want to touch him for fear of losing their other cheap labour, and employers reputable enough to know better did just that – knew better.

So for four months he had survived on increasingly rare cash-only day jobs and stints in the local shelters. He kept himself barely fed and not nearly sheltered enough.

"Move in with me."

Kagome's request – no, i_demand_/i – was met with with an exasperated sigh – she had shared parts of her life too, but it didn't make them accountable to each other.

"Look, I didn't tell you that so you'd feel bad for me. I told you that because you asked and there's really nothing else I can give you."

Kagome knew, absolutely and with all her soul, that this man was the reincarnation of her lost love. While no one had been there for Inuyasha in his time of need, she'd be damned if she let another life slip him by while she had it within her power to fix it.

"Nonsense!" Kagome dismissed with a wave of her hand. "You need a place to stay, and I need someone to keep the place tidy." It was a bald-faced lie, and both of them knew it. Kagome's apartment was immaculate.

Kagome could see the gratitude in Isaac's expression. The wary disbelief that still resided there was slipping. All it would take would be one more push...

"You keep up your end and I don't see why we can't contact social services an a couple of months about your brother. I have a spare room and I'm sure we could find bunk-beds..."

And that was how the reincarnation of a shrine priestess began living with the reincarnation of a broken boy of a half-demon. That Thanksgiving two lives were saved.

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_Read a review!_

_--Sarga_


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